


A Scene I would really like to see on the show

by lissaroxs



Category: One Day at a Time (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 04:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9418502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lissaroxs/pseuds/lissaroxs
Summary: *"One Day at a Time" Season 1 Finale "Quinces" Spoilers*Elena gets pressured into trying alcohol and while she tells herself & Penelope she won't do it again, she finds herself drinking again. Schneider comes to talk about his relationship with alcohol.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a description of a scene I'd like to see on the show. 
> 
> (Also I've never written anything before... So don't be too harsh)
> 
> *edit- I've decided to add dialogue of how I believe the scene above would actually go on. I've been really hesitant to do this so I hope you can all be kind with your criticisms/words in response. I hope you like it!* 
> 
> The description of the scene is now at the bottom of the story

"Come on Elena, just take a drink! It's not like I'm asking you to get drunk, I just want you to try something new! Plus it helps with the stress..."

Elena is well aware of the dangers of drinking. 

But at the moment, Elena wasn't thinking straight. 

The only thing on her mind was the anger and hurt she feels coursing though her veins.

She takes a breath and is about to refuse when a thought pops in her mind.  
How mad would it make Papi to find out she was drinking? It'd really piss him off wouldn't it?

"Fine. Why the hell not." She concedes.

She took a swig and felt it burn going down. She didn't really like it, but kept drinking knowing that it would piss off her papi.

The next day Elena's at home alone with Alex after school, while Abuela is at the store. She decided to grab a bottle of Penelope's wine and drink some while watching Buffy in her room. While she still didn't really like the taste of alcohol she did like the way it made her relax.

After a while Alex knocks on her door but she doesn't respond right away like she normally does. He figures she must be watching Buffy with her headphones on so he cracks open the door a bit and was shocked at what he found. Elena passed out with her laptop in her lap, Buffy still playing, and a half bottle of wine cradled in her arm like a baby. 

Alex gasps quietly and tries to sneak out of her room, when of course, her door decides to give a loud creak. Elena jolts awake where she sees Alex frozen in place. "What are you doing!?" 

"What are YOU doing?!" Alex responds pointing at the bottle of wine.

Elena panics. "You CANNOT tell Mom."

"I won't but...why do you have Mom's wine? And when did you start drinking!? Are you ok?" 

"Look..." she says exasperated "I'm fine! This is only my second time drinking. It just helps with the stress when I think about Papi. Look, you can't tell. I'm not planning on doing it again."

"Ok" he says hesitant "And you're sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine. Promise." She doesn't like lying to Alex, but she wasn't going to let on how much her heart really hurt from Papi leaving.

"Alright, well Dinners almost ready. You better brush your teeth so Mami doesn't smell the alcohol on your breath."

Elena hides the wine under her bed while Alex walks out of her room. ...I'll just put it back tonight when Mami and Abuela are sleeping.

"So anything interesting happen today?" Penelope asks trying to start a conversation with her kids. "You two are awfully quiet."

"Interesting? What?! No! Of course not! Why would anything be interesting today?! Just school and homework. Nothing interesting! Nope. Just boring old school!" Alex responds, obviously hiding something. 

Elena holds back putting her face in her hands, and instead settles on giving Alex a death glare.

".....Okay....." Penelope replied. "What about you Elena?"

"No, not really. Although I did read an interesting article on the stressors school has on teens." Elena proceeds to expand on the article knowing that'll get her Mami to stop asking questions.

After dinner Elena excuses herself to her room early, noting how teens often don't get the sleep they require to fully function at school, and how she's trying to beat those odds.

When she closed the door to her room, she realized she actually was pretty tired. ...I'll just put the wine away tomorrow night.

The next morning Elena wakes up with a small headache but shrugs it off blaming it on her stress. 

School went by pretty fast, with honestly nothing interesting happening other than hearing some gossip that one of classmates had drunk sex and might be pregnant. 

I would never be that reckless. Plus, one perk of being gay is never having that pregnancy scare! Elena thought to herself. 

When she got home she found Schneider and Abuela arm wrestling...so nothing out of the ordinary. She was however, surprised that her Abuela was actually winning until she saw Schneider pretending to struggle and winking at Elena. 

"Right...so I'm going to go study..." She tells Schneider and her Abuelita. 

"Smart thinki- Aww man!" Schneider responds as he pretends to lose. 

Elena went in her room and immediately checked her facebook, because she already finished her homework at school. 

She saw a notification from Josh with a message containing an article on how many lesbians have shitty father figures. She was about to open it when she felt a tightness in her chest and a weight in her heart. She already thought about her Papi multiple times already today and really didn't want to think about him anymore. 

She knew Josh was just trying to be helpful and supportive so she thanked him for the article and exited out of Facebook. 

She begins loading another episode of Buffy when she remembers the wine under her bed. She wrestles with the idea of drinking again until she caves and grabs the bottle of wine, her laptop and sits down while starting Buffy to distract herself from the guilt she had inside her.

Alex decided to check up on Elena again because unlike her, her drinking was the only thing on his mind today. He decides to open her door a bit and found the same thing as yesterday. He sighs sadly and closes the door quietly this time.

When Penelope gets home Alex brings it up to her.

"Mami, I'm worried about Elena. I went to go ask her for her help on my math homework and... I found her with your wine."

"WHAT? Papito are you serious?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be to hard on her - she's still upset about Papi leaving"

Penelope pauses, but then shakes her head "No Papito, she still knows the rules. Absolutely no drinking until 21. The government may be messed up in a lot of ways but I actually agree with that law."

Penelope opens Elena's door to start yelling at her, but when she sees Elena she begins to tear up. Her reaction took her off guard so she decided to close the door and talk to her when she calms down. She doesn't want to make this worse than it already is. 

When Elena does wake up she accidentally spills some wine on herself. 

She curses under her breath. 

She looked at her laptop to see the time, but found it dead in her lap. She grabs her phone and sees it's 7:39pm. She was startled when she heard a knock on the door and heard her Mami say "Elena? Could you come out please? I want to talk to you."

She's immediately suspicious since she knew Alex was really bad at keeping secrets. I mean he accidentally told Schneider she was gay...If he can't keep that big of a secret, she probably shouldn't have trusted him with this.

Elena walks out to find her Mami pacing around the table, arms crossed with an upset look on her face. Yep, she thinks Alex definitely blabbed. 

"Elena sit down." As she sat down, Penelope closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  
"Elena, I know you've been drinking" 

"I assume Alex told on me?" Elena grumbled.

"Don't get mad at your brother for this, you put him in a difficult situation! He only told because he was concerned. And I'm glad he did. Plus did you really think I wouldn't find out? There's a bottle missing from my wine cabinet! Granted I thought it was your Abuela, but...Elena, what where you thinking?" 

"I don't know...I really wasn't! Look, this isn't that big of a deal. I've only drank three times and I'm not planning on drinking again anytime soon. Plus it's not like you never drank when you were my age!" Elena accuses.

"This isn't about me! This is about you! You know the dangers of drinking. I regret drinking that young! It got me in some really bad situations. You might have been born two years earlier if I kept drinking at that age! Plus how could you do this knowing how it affected your Papi?!"

Elena stood up. "I'm drinking BECAUSE of Papi! He's the one that ditched me! He's the reason for all of this!"

"Listen Elena," Penelope replied, trying to stay calm "I know what your Papi did was horrible. It upsets me too. But you have to take responsibility for your own actions! Nobody forced you to drink!" 

"Ugh! I know! I know! But like I said, I'm not planning on drinking anytime soon again." 

"Well that's for certain. I've put a lock on the cabinet so no one can open it oth-"

"YOU WHAT!?!" Elena exploded in anger. "Am I really that untrustworthy!?! You have to keep the drunk away from the alcohol!? I've only drank THREE times!"

"And you won't be drinking anymore." Penelope defended herself. "This is for your own safety Elena! Don't you understand that?"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Elena screamed and stormed off back to her room.

"ELENA!!" Penelope yelled after her. She paused and took a deep breath. This was not a fight to continue. Penelope told herself. I should just leave it be for now.

The next morning Elena gave everyone the silent treatment, still obviously very angry. When she left for school she honestly thought about skipping and going to the library instead. She realized however, that she really didn't want to miss school. Plus she really didn't want to give her mom anymore ammunition to label her as untrustworthy.

While Elena was struggling to pay attention at school, Penelope really did call off work. There's no sense in going knowing she will just be snapping at the patients and making things worse at the office. Dr. Berkowitz didn't ask why but understood that she needed a day off for her mental health. Everyone deserves a mental health day. 

After arguing with her mom about her decision to lock up the cabinet, Penelope decided to go down to Schneider's and see what he thought about all of this.

Schneider answered the door in his usual cheerful way.  
"What's up Buttercup? 

"Ugh. Schneider I can't deal with your happiness right now. I need you to tone it down." Penelope replies

"You can't shut this happy train down Penelope! I'm in too good a mood!"

"Why are you so hap-" Penelope stops when she saw the obvious reason Schneider was in such a good mood walk across his living room to the kitchen.

"Schneider, its like two o'clock! How did you manage to get... you know what never mind." She continues half disgusted half impressed.

"You sure you don't want to hear about my mad skills?" Schneider teases wiggling his eyebrows.

Penelope rolls her eyes almost to the point of seeing her brain."No Schneider. I don't. Look, I actually need to talk about something serious." Penelope takes a deep breath. "I found out Elena has been drinking."

Schneiders face turned from joyful to scared in a split second. At this moment his happy reason walks back into the living room with a plate of food when Schneider puts his hand on her back and quickly escorts her out of his apartment.

"Look we had a lot of fun and I'd love to do it again sometime but I've got a serious family problem going on now so you need to leave."

"But I don't have my shoes! Or my bra! And I have your plate!" Hottie McHottie responds surprised.

"Look! Just keep the plate, and...I'll mail you your stuff!" 

"But you don't have my address!"

"I'll figure it out!" Schneider says while slamming the door.

"So what's this about Elena drinking?" Schneider asks.

Penelope looks surprised at how quickly Schneider kicked Hottie McHottie out.

"Your just going to kick that poor girl out without her bra?! Bras are expensive Schneider!"

"So I'll send her a check too!" Schneider says exasperated "Now focus! What's this about Elena drinking?"

Penelope takes another deep breath.  
..I've been taking so many deep breaths I'm starting to wonder if I have asthma..

"Yesterday Alex told me he found Elena drinking some of my wine. So I brought it up to her last night. We had a huge argument and I even put a lock on my wine cabinet! Mami thinks I'm overreacting, but I don't think so!" Penelope then begins to doubt herself. " I don't know, maybe I am overreacting...I mean she's only drank three times."

"NO." Schneider responds firmly. "You are not overreacting! Not even a little! If anything you need to be stricter on her! You need to dump all your alcohol down the drain!"

"Okay let's not get crazy." Penelope says "I still like the occasional drink."

"NO." Schneider says frantically "You HAVE TO get rid of all your alcohol. I'm serious Penelope. Elena shouldn't have any ability to access alcohol. AT ALL."

"Woah. Alright why is this more upsetting to you than to me? I mean I was married and lived with a drunk." Penelope asks confused.

It dawned on Penelope when Schneider got really quiet and stood still looking at his feet. 

"That's right..." Penelope mumbled "I'm so sorry Schneider, I forgot all about your drinking history. I shouldn't have brought this up to you."

"No." Schneider says softly. "I'm really glad you did. Look.." he paused. "Living with a drunk is a horrible thing to experience. I would never wish that upon anyone. But living with a drunk and being the drunk are two very different things."

Penelope stays quiet listening intently to what he's saying, and waits for him to continue.

"There's nothing worse than being scared of yourself. Or feeling like you no longer have any control of your mind. When the only constant in your life is drinking. You hate yourself for drinking but still need to drink to feel some sense of control. I wish to god my parents would have emptied out their liquor cabinet. It would have been so helpful."

After Schneider stayed quiet for a while Penelope responded.

"Alright. I'll do it. I can't imagine being scared of yourself....I can't have Elena get to that point."

"Thank you." Schneider says. "And thank you for trusting me and telling me about this."

Penelope stands up and gives Schneider a tight hug. 

"I'm going to dump out all of my wine right now." Penelope decided.

"Can I come with you?" Schneider asks " I just...I just need to see you do it. So I don't panic about it all night." He confesses.

"Of course."

Schneider smiles at Penelope softly and walks over to open the door for her. Surprisingly however, he finds Hottie McHottie sitting right outside his door with her eyes filled with tears. 

"That was beautiful." she told Schneider.

"What are you still doing here?!" He asked still shocked.

"Oh!" She responds while getting up and wiping away her tears. " I really wanted my bra back. They're fucking expensive and hard to buy."

Penelope laughed. "Damn straight! I'll see you upstairs Schneider."

As soon as McHottie grabbed her bra and shoes from Schneider's place  
and he apologized again for rushing her out, he jogged up to meet Penelope. When he walked into Penelope's apartment he saw her standing in front of the sink drinking a glass of wine. 

"Seriously?" Schneider chuckles.

Penelope took her last sip. "Come on Schneider - you know I had to get at least one drink in before all of this goes down the drain."

"Alright well lets get rid of all this" Schneider said holding up a bottle.

The two clink their bottles and begin poring it down the drain.

For a minute it felt oddly calming and intimate doing this with Schneider.

No, not that type of intimate- although she hasn't been able to get some dreams out of her head once she found out Schneider was hot under all that scruff... sigh...

No, this was emotionally Intimate. Schneider has been open about his family and life since they've met, but this is on a different level. She wasn't sure she'd be able to do this alone.

The two of them stood in silence and just listened to the wine going down the drain when,

"Aye!! What do you think you're doing?!" 

Penelope jumps and almost breaks the wine bottle in the sink, but thankfully it only clanged a bit.

"Mami we talked about this!" Penelope says "I told you I'm going to have to put up boundaries with Elena!"

"But to do that you have to pour all our wine down the drain?! This is ridiculous!!" Lydia says increadously.

"Mami you know I love you, but you have to let me do this." 

"Fine." Lydia says throwing up her hands "But Schneider's paying us back for all our alcohol!" 

Schneider laughs "That's fine by me" he says smiling. 

After a couple more bottles, and Lydia murmuring some frustrations under her breath, they were finally done. 

"Alright I think that's it!" Penelope says smiling feeling proud of herself. 

"And your sure thats all the bottles?" Schneider asks.

"Yeah Schneider. What you think I keep a bottle in my room? Because your right let me go get it." She turns to walk away when Schneider stops her and turns her toward him.

"No Penelope" He says "I mean.. do you think Elena has any in her room? Or Alex?" 

Penelope almost yelled at him for accusing Alex and Elena of drinking when she remembered. She almost forgot why she was doing this. 

"Where did I go wrong Schneider?" She says quietly 

Schneider looks at her surprised "You didn't Penelope."

Penelope shakes her head with her eyes closed not believing him, when she felt his hands on her shoulders and found him looking in her eyes. 

"Penelope I need you to understand this. You've done nothing wrong. Elena's drinking is not a portrayal of your parenting - Your a wonderful mom."

Penelope just stood there awestruck. She wasn't expecting that level of kindness from him. 

She stares at him for a little while before she notices she's been holding in a breath, exhales, and takes another deep breath in. 

"Thank you Schneider. Really. " He smiles and she turns around to get her secret wine from her bedroom and to check Elena's room. 

She had to collect herself a moment before going into Elena's room and looking for wine. She didn't like having to cross this boundary between them. As she opened the door she sees Elena's room as it always has been. A bit messy but all Elena. 

Penelope walks in and does a quick scan of her room and almost walks out content. That's when she remembered she didn't check under the bed. She forgot that's the spot kids love to hide things. 

So she gets down on her hands and knees and finds the hidden wine under the bed. All that's left is about enough to fill half a wine glass. 

Penelope sits on Elena's bed for a minute when she hears a knock on Elena's door and sees Schneider walking in. 

"You ok?" He asks softly.

"Yeah" Penelope responds wiping the unexpected tears out of her eyes. 

She stands up and finds herself in a tight hug from Schneider. She immediately felt calmer and more sure of herself. When she began debating on what he's wearing that smells so good she figured it was a good time to exit the hug. 

They walk out together and dump the remaining wine down the drain. 

Penelope felt both instant relief followed by instant fear of how Elena's going to react. But she didn't have much time to process how horrible Elena's reaction would be because Elena and Alex just walked in. 

Schneider and Penelope share a look and he knows it's time to leave. 

"See everyone at dinner!" he calls on his way out.

Elena stands still silent and angry in the hallway in front of their door. 

"You can come in Elena" Penelope sighs 

"Oh are we not doing pat-downs?" Elena says angrily "Because I assumed..."

She stopped mid sentence when she saw the wine cabinet didn't have a lock on it anymore. She breathed out loudly.

"So does this mean you trust me now?" Elena asks still angry but less so now. 

"No" Lydia responds "It means your Mami is crazy and dumped all our wine down the drain!" 

Penelope throws her hands in the air not needing that comment at all.

"WOW. JUST WOW." Elena begins "SO NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT TRUST ME ENOUGH TO HAVE ACCESS TO ALCOHOL, YOU HAD TO GET ALL OF IT OUT OF THE HOUSE? HOW DA-"

"- So is it time for dinner now?" Schneider asked walking back into their apartment.

"No, Schneider it's only 3:45! Do you have no sense of time?" Penelope asks upset 

"Oh well in that case I'll just grab a snack" Schneider says walking into the kitchen

"What on earth are you doing?" Penelope asks when Schneider sneaks her a hundred dollar bill.

"Look I thought it might be a good idea for me to talk to her. You can take Alex and Lydia to grab an early dinner for all of us to give us some time" he replied hopefully 

Penelope was about to say no when 3 things came to mind: 

1\. This fool just gave her a free hundred bucks to grab something good to eat and she did not want to give that up.  
2\. She probably couldn't make Elena any more upset than she already was, and  
3\. Schneider may actually be able to help Elena understand their concern. 

"Alright" she says 

"Wait really? Schneider responded hopeful

"Yeah I doubt you can make it worse" She confesses "Plus I've been craving some fiesta lime chicken.." 

Schneider smiles at her as she walked into the living room "Alex! Mami! We're going to Applebee's! Hurry up and grab your stuff!" 

"I just can't even believe you right now." Elena says to Penelope.

"Oh don't worry sweetie, I'll bring back your favorite. Meanwhile you can hang out with Schneider!" Penelope says faking cheerfulness 

She decided to get everyone out the door before she could regret what she was doing.

As soon as the door slammed the air filled with an awkward silence.

"So, got any homework?" Schneider asks carefully 

To be honest he wasn't sure how to start this conversation but it was clear Elena didn't want to talk to him

"Leave me alone" she sighed with tears in her eyes "I'm going in my room"

As she walked away Schneider tried to stop her realizing Penelope never shut Elena's bedroom door.

"Wait!"

When she reached her room and realized it had been gone through she turned around and stomped angrily back in the living room.

"You knew!?!" Elena accused Schneider. "You knew mom went through my stuff?! Why didn't you stop her?!"

"Well" Schneider started carefully "Seeing as it was my idea.."

Elena's crying now in anger and frustration.

"WAS THE LOCK YOUR IDEA TOO?!" Elena yelled, tasting the salty tears trickling down her face. "AND DUMPING OUT THE WINE?! WHY DOES NO ONE TRUST ME?!" 

"ELENA!" Schneider yelled desperately 

Elena felt her body seize up for a moment. Schneider's never yelled at her before. It almost reminded how her Papi use to yell at her when he was angry...but it was also different. She didn't feel scared - just more or less shocked. She heard her name again and turned toward Schneider.

"Elena." He repeated "please let me explain"

She began to get upset again but was getting physically tired from all her yelling and crying. "I'VE ONLY DRANK THREE TIMES SCHNEIDER! THREE times. That's all" 

"That's how it starts." Schneider says quietly 

"UGH. This is not that big of a deal! Why is everyone making it one! I won't do it again, I promise."

She sees him reach into his pocket and pull out coin and begin to fiddle with it. 

"What now your going to try to bribe me?" Elena says shocked.

"What?!" Schneider says taken a back. He realized she was talking about what he was holding in his hands. 

He didn't even notice he took it out of his pocket.

"I'm not bribing you Elena. But I would like to talk to you. Just wait to yell at me until I tell you I'm done. "

Elena flops on the couch arms crossed and still crying. "Alright" she says quietly "I'm listening." She was tired of yelling and crying.

Schneider hesitantly sets his coin on the table in front of Elena. She was about to accuse him of bribing her again when she realized it wasn't a normal coin.

She sits up and takes it in her hand and begins looking at it carefully. 

"Is this..."

"Yeah. It is. That's my 5 years sober chip." 

Schneider takes a deep breath.

"Elena, no one in their right mind would say your a bad kid. Your intelligent, caring, politically and environmentally involved, and you love your family. And on top of that you deal with me."

She smiles feeling a bit better and wipes off her tears.

"Elena everyone knows your responsible. But alcohol.... Alcohol steals your responsibility"

Elena wanted to argue but let him continue.

"When I was your age I was also top of my class and a responsible kid. And those sentences you keep saying - I said them too. 'It's only been three times. I can stop anytime I want. I'll never get that bad.'"

"But alcohol doesn't care if your responsible or not. If your white or Latina. Rich or poor. It inhibits the way you think. And you begin to mix up your priorities based on your drinking habits. 'I know I have a test to study for, but this will help me relax for it."

"Elena I'm forty years old. I know I look 26. But now look at that chip - what does it say?"

"Five years sober" she says quietly 

"Five years Elena. Only five years! Which means for twenty years I had a relationship with alcohol that I always said I could handle but never did very well." 

"I carry that chip in my pocket everywhere I go as a reminder of how hard it was to earn. It's also a constant reminder not to drink. Even after I got that chip, I still had a hard time avoiding alcohol. I'd crave it after a long day, or a bad breakup, or hell just after breakfast. And when I'd get close to drinking I'd remind myself of how hard that chip was to earn and how that one drink could make me fall. 

I know this all started after your Papi left you, but Elena..."

Elena turned to look at Schneider after she heard his voice crack to see him holding back tears.

"The day of your quinces was also the most difficult day I've had since I've earned that chip. The minute I saw your face when you found out your Papi left you my heart was torn in two. I had to keep it together, but all I wanted was to drink the night away and never come back. ...And then I felt that chip in my pocket - the very one your holding - and it helped me remember what I'd be missing out on if i did drink. You. I'd miss out on you and your family. So that night after your Quinces was over I went to the nearest A.A. Meeting to calm down. And it helped."

"Elena we all know your responsible. We just want to help by making it harder for you to gain access to drink.."

Schneider took a deep breath.

"Alright. I'm done. You can yell at me now."

Schneider closed his eyes fully expecting an argument on how he needed to stay out of their business and how he had no right... but he did not expect Elena to jump and hug him as tightly as possible. 

He rested his head on hers until she pulled away. 

"Schneider" Elena started "I had no idea how hard it was for you.. I just have one question. 

"What's that?" Schneider asked sniffiling 

"Were you really top of your class?" 

"What!? That's your question? Why does no one remember I own an apartment complex and am the landlord to multiple tenants?!"

Elena and Schneider laugh and then Elena smiles at him and says something he'd always wanted to hear.

"Thank you Schneider. I'm so glad your in my life and I'm happy to be in yours....I love you." 

Schneider sat down with Elena and the two begin to cry all over again

" I love you too Elena. Just promise me something. If you ever have the slightest twinge of craving to drink - call me or come to my apartment to talk. If your at a party and tempted, call me. I can either pick you up or talk to you about the fear. I'm here for you."

"I promise."

When the apartment door opened and Penelope walked in smiling, her face dropped as soon as she saw them crying. 

"Aw hell Schnieder what did you do?!" Penelope asked.

When Elena jumped up and hugged her mom, Penelope asked the question again just more impressed this time "Woah Schnieder what did you do?"

"Is someone cutting onions?" Lydia asked

And just like that, things seemed to be ok again.

Description of Scene below:

Elena gets pressured into trying alcohol and while she tells herself & Penelope she won’t do it again, she finds herself drinking again.

Alex sees her drinking for the second time and tells Penelope. Penelope then confides in Schneider about what’s going on and he gets really worried.

Later he stops by their apartment and asks everyone if Elena and he can talk alone. Penelope understands and takes Alex and Lydia somewhere.

He brings it up to Elena and she tells him to relax that it’s not a big deal, she only did it a few times when she was stressed and she won’t do it again.

He then becomes very quiet.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his 5 year sobriety chip. He explains to her that he carries it with him everywhere he goes as a reminder of how hard it was to earn. That he always knows where the closest AA meetings are because even now he still deals with the urge to turn to alcohol when he is upset.

Teary eyed, he tells her that the day of her Quinces was the most difficult day he’s had since he earned that chip because of how upset and angry he was that Victor left her. And it was only because of the chip in his pocket and the knowledge of how much he loves and cares for her & her family that he was able to avoid turning to alcohol. 

After hearing all of this Elena and Schneider hug and he makes her promise that if she ever feels like drinking again to come to him even if it’s 3 in the morning or to call him and he’ll come pick her up wherever she is no questions asked. Elena promises and tells Schneider that she’s really lucky to have him in her life and that she loves him too.


End file.
